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Pictured: One Sea Turtle’s Worth of Plastic

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posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 10:42 AM
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How bad are our oceans polluted? Take a look at this...


Joining the Laysan albatross as icons of ocean plastic pollution are sea turtles, which consume bellyfuls of debris while swimming through Earth’s five great ocean garbage patches.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a136216e70cb.jpg[/atsimg]

This is a beautiful creature IMO. We are poisoning them and their habitat.

This is a picture of a sea turtle's stomach contents...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3b1928bd824b.jpg[/atsimg]

This is tragic and something that can be avoided fairly easy.


About 0.25 percent of all plastic ends up in the ocean. That might not sound like much, but humanity produces about 260 million tons of plastic a year. Tiny fractions add up fast. Oceanic plastic is pulled into the center of rotating currents, or gyres, where it doesn’t degrade, but breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. Some pieces end up in plankton and algae, or drift to the ocean floor. Others are mistaken for food by turtles.

The phenomenon is described in a new research review (.pdf) published by the Global Sea Turtle Network and spotlighted by the fifth International Marine Debris Conference, now ongoing in Honolulu, Hawaii.

One anecdote in the article, written by biologists Wallace Nichols of the California Academy of Science and the University of British Columbia’s Colette Wabnitz, stands out. “Relief of gastrointestinal obstruction of a green turtle off Melbourne beach, Florida, resulted in the animal defecating 74 foreign objects over a period of a month, including four types of latex balloons, different types of hard plastic, a piece of carpet-like material, and two 2- to 4-mm tar balls, they wrote.

Like so many environmental problems, ocean plastic seems overwhelming. But countries like China, South Africa and Thailand are already taxing or banning single-use plastic bags, which pose the greatest threat to turtles.

Individuals can help by cutting back on bag and bottle use, and finding ways to avoid plastic. Someday, perhaps, humanity might quit throwing away plastic altogether. Wrote Nichols, “There is no stopping the ingenious human mind.”


This is fixable. There is a lot of our crap littering many other places besides our oceans. We have even managed to litter outerspace!


We are killing nature a little at a time. We need to start thinking about the fact that we are a part of "the circle of life" and the more we kill off, the more we harm our own species.

Just some food for thought. You can read more here...
www.wired.com...
edit on 3/23/2011 by Kangaruex4Ewe because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 10:54 AM
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reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe
 


For crying out loud. Would it be so difficult for a company to come up with a business model for skimming the plastic from these vast deposits of trash, melting it down and using it? Of course, it could not always be used exclusively for these purposes as the time in the seawater will have severely compromised its structural integrity, so it would need to be combined with other compounds for some repurposing, but still . . .

Potential Uses:

1. Make figurines of sea creatures to sell to people who want the oceans cleaned up. (Any number of "eco-friendly" products could be made this way from doormats to computer keyboards)
2. Commision a few hundred artists to use the skimmed material in a series of shows to promote awareness of the problem.
3. Use it to create lightweight construction materials for use in poverty and disaster stricken parts of the world.
4. Use it to build playgrounds.

Of course, once you establish it as a potentially valuable resource, corporations would go to war with one another over "ownership" of the trash.




edit on 23-3-2011 by RobertAntonWeishaupt because: . . . and another thing!



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 10:55 AM
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Shoot let the turtles go at it! They can adapt or evolve to match their environment. Maybe they will even save the planet.

Edit: Or they will learn to swim with their mouth's closed.

edit on 23-3-2011 by jjkenobi because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:00 AM
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Instead of focusing a global initiative to clean our oceans, gov'ts around the world are more interested in saving oil. The main ingredient in plastic. The same plastic that ruins our oceans.
My heart goes to the animals who ingest these things.
They don't know any better.
And we should be more concerned with them.

Every country has pollution and garbage issues.
We bury it or toss it into the oceans, as if that solves the problem.
But with a world obsessed with money, fame and fortune...
You will never get the proper cleanup.

Our primary goal, as a race, should be to take care of what we have been given.
Instead, we ALL take it for granted.

It is truly disgusting.
And I'm no tree-hugger.


Magnificent thread.



edit on 23-3-2011 by havok because: Added clarity



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:02 AM
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We are destroying the life here and later people gets scared of mother nature, we messed with it first.



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:05 AM
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reply to post by RobertAntonWeishaupt
 


no, they can't. the oceans are massive and the water is constantly moving. skimming the water would prove to be futile. now add the abundance of life in said oceans and your skimmers would do more harm than good.

the easy route is to teach our children to not be the pigs that those that came before them are (and were). There's no hope for the older generations but our kids, and their kids, might actually be capable of not destroying entire species.



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:10 AM
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This planet was not meant for insensitive creatures like us humans.
We are doing to this planet what any invader would do to any of the conquered lands.
See what the US military is up to.

Crimes against fellow humans, crimes against innocent animals, crimes against the all giving planet.
We don't deserve this beautiful blob in space called earth.



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:13 AM
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Originally posted by Crakeur
 


no, they can't. the oceans are massive and the water is constantly moving. skimming the water would prove to be futile. now add the abundance of life in said oceans and your skimmers would do more harm than good.

the easy route is to teach our children to not be the pigs that those that came before them are (and were). There's no hope for the older generations but our kids, and their kids, might actually be capable of not destroying entire species.


I respectfully disagree with your first comment.
If our global govt's can waste trillions of dollars on wars...
They can spend billions on cleanup.
If the pacific garbage patch can stay in place long enough to be viewed from a satellite...
It can be salvaged.

We need the manpower, money and thoughtful solutions to solve this.

But man is too worried about how to make money.
Not how to spend it with no profit involved.

That's the problem..
The first chance that someone sees an opportunity to make profits off of the mess, they will.
But if they just lose money, with no gain, they won't bat an eyelash at it.

The second comment I whole-heartedly agree with you on.

I just don't see why our leaders are so consumed with profits.
Especially since, if it wasn't for the Earth and its gifts...they'd have none.





PS: Kangaroo, I love the invader zim avatar. My fav tv series. Ha!
edit on 23-3-2011 by havok because: Spelling!!!



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:14 AM
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posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:25 AM
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reply to post by RobertAntonWeishaupt
 


It really would be nice if someone could figure out how to make profit from trash to motivate people with money to go at it. Making artwork or products out of it is a great idea, however there is so much trash in these oceans (which continues to accumulate on a daily basis), I don't think anyone would be able to keep up with using it all. Then again it may put a good dent in cleaning it up. There's also the question of how to skim all this trash out of the water efficiently without scooping up ocean life along with it. It's quite the problem to conquer.

There has got to be a way to make disposable containers out of organic products which are able to decompose without causing harm to the environment. It's something we definitely should be working on. Going back to using glass/reusable bottles for more things may be helpful.



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:37 AM
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Originally posted by havok
I respectfully disagree with your first comment.


I'm sorry, that's simply not allowed.


Originally posted by havok
If our global govt's can waste trillions of dollars on wars...
They can spend billions on cleanup.
If the pacific garbage patch can stay in place long enough to be viewed from a satellite...
It can be salvaged.


There's two different garbage issues. the first, as you mentioned, garbage patches. They're the "easier" mess to clean up. Get a couple of offshore scallop boats, grab some willing hands and scoop the crap up. lots of work that can be done with minimal cost. The boats, the help and the transport are minimal. the fuel is costly and the proper disposal of the waste might wind up to be a return on investment if you find a plastic user willing to pay for the plastic that they can use in their products.

the second type, and this is where my line of thinking was because I've seen sea turtles in the ocean, I've watched them go after crap floating along the surface of the ocean. the bulk of the garbage comes from individuals who are too friggin lazy to bring their garbage to a garbage can. Whether they are at the beach, on a boat or driving over bridges, they are the ones dumping this crap into the water and it floats everywhere and this is what the fish dig into. Guy dumps a small plastic bag in the water, turtle sees the light shimmer off it and grabs it, thinking it's a fish. turtle now has a plastic baggie in its stomach. the only way to stop this is to either stop making wrappers and other goods in nonbiodegradeable material or train folks to no toss their trash and punish those that do, with steep fines and even jail for habitual dumpers.



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:45 AM
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a plastic devouring bacteria, fungus, or alge will soon evolve... or even be invented.

Problem solved. hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahh



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:48 AM
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There was a post with a video back in September about this that first brought my attention to it. Apparently, this has been a bad problem for decades, yet I never hear anything about it...except here. So much yip-yapping and fighting going on about so many stupid things while our Earth slowly dies. And we wonder why it gets so upset.


Plastic Bag video



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:50 AM
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reply to post by Crakeur
 


Ahh Crakeur...
You made me spit out my coca-cola, through my nose, upon reading your rebuttal.
Well the first line...that is.


I see your point with the little bits floating around and agree that the solution would be to teach future generations to stay away from making wrappers, shiny plastic, etc.
I don't think anyone realizes how much trash is thrown out of cars...etc.
I clean my road about twice a year, in a quarter mile stretch, and get about 7-10 50gallon bags full.
It's despicable.
If I could find the people who trashed my road, I'd like to put it all on their front porch.
See how they like all that trash.
But some humans are lazy, ignorant, and apathetic.
And you can't stop people from being stupid.

Seeing that shiny plastic in the ocean would definitely get attention from creatures.
It's exactly like using artificial bait when fishing.
Flashy things attract predators.

But I still believe that if we don't focus any attention on massive clean-up, we will only destroy what is left for the future generations. Because if we leave it unattended, it will only get worse.

It doesn't seem like any gov't even cares about it.
But, in my humble opinion, just like our own country, it should rank up the list further.

Maybe I just realized I opened a can of worms.
Make Money first, then cleanup the trash later, or when it affects profits.
Because without money, there's no economy...


Then again, I am vehemently against money.
And money comes first.




edit on 23-3-2011 by havok because: Added an explanation

edit on 23-3-2011 by havok because: Added more clarity



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 11:59 AM
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reply to post by CoherentlyConfused
 


Yeah I worked with Loggerhead Turtles in the Mediterranean for about 2 years nearly a decade ago and it was a huge problem back then too.
Out of a nest of 200 babies the chances are that only one Turtle will survive to become an adult

I dearly hope that at least one of the thousands who's nests I protected and who's mothers I tagged is still out there somewhere and hasn't been either caught in a trawler net and drowned (a very common occurrence) or starved to death because their stomach is full of plastic.

Plastic bags are a particular problem as turtles eat jellyfish and a floating bag looks like a tempting snack for a turtle
edit on 23-3-2011 by davespanners because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 12:38 PM
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The whole world should be using that bio degradable corn "plastic" by now IMO...
You can make all sorts of packaging/bags/wraps with it.
I have a few and they are as good if not better than regular plastic.
They last well,and are as strong as plastic bags.
And they would simply dissovle back into organic matter in the oceans.

Sad what we are doing,treating the oceans like the planets unofficial trash dump.
Will we ever learn before its too late?

www.smithsonianmag.com...

www.icis.com... (video)
edit on 23/3/2011 by Silcone Synapse because: added links



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 03:39 PM
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reply to post by Crakeur
 


Oh I'm definitely not talking about skimming the whole ocean. Just these massive concentrated and relatively stationary deposits. As for the random bits and pieces floating around here and there, you are quite right. People need to stop dumping their garbage everywhere.



posted on Mar, 23 2011 @ 10:39 PM
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Originally posted by havok

Our primary goal, as a race, should be to take care of what we have been given.
Instead, we ALL take it for granted.

It is truly disgusting.
And I'm no tree-hugger.


Magnificent thread.



I agree. If you give a child everything they ask for, they become selfish, greedy, entitled, and unappreciative. When someone has to work hard for something they tend to be more thankful and take better care of the item. Assuming the earth will always be here no matter what, makes a lot of folks take it for granted.

And I am no tree hugger either.



Originally posted by Crakeur
the easy route is to teach our children to not be the pigs that those that came before them are (and were). There's no hope for the older generations but our kids, and their kids, might actually be capable of not destroying entire species.


That is indeed our best hope IMO. If we can break this disturbing cycle for our children, things may have a chance of turning around. Leaving a legacy of litter, an unhealthy planet, dying animals, and filthy air is naugt to be proud of as far I am concerned.


Originally posted by havok

PS: Kangaroo, I love the invader zim avatar. My fav tv series. Ha!


Ahhh, thanks! It is certainly one of the most hilarious series I have ever seen. Great minds think alike.



Originally posted by CanadianDream420



Jeez! That was even worse! There is absolutely no excuse for this to continue happening.
I wonder why things like this don't bother everyone.
A sad state of affairs to be sure.



posted on Mar, 24 2011 @ 12:45 AM
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Originally posted by Wertdagf
a plastic devouring bacteria, fungus, or alge will soon evolve... or even be invented.

Problem solved. hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahh


That would be pretty awesome and helpful! TPTB probably just stole your billion dollar idea!



Originally posted by CoherentlyConfused
There was a post with a video back in September about this that first brought my attention to it. Apparently, this has been a bad problem for decades, yet I never hear anything about it...except here. So much yip-yapping and fighting going on about so many stupid things while our Earth slowly dies. And we wonder why it gets so upset.


Plastic Bag video


It's kind of like out of sight, out mind. I suppose ignorance is truly bliss for some.
Thanks for the link.



Originally posted by Silcone Synapse
The whole world should be using that bio degradable corn "plastic" by now IMO...
You can make all sorts of packaging/bags/wraps with it.
I have a few and they are as good if not better than regular plastic.
They last well,and are as strong as plastic bags.
And they would simply dissovle back into organic matter in the oceans.

Sad what we are doing,treating the oceans like the planets unofficial trash dump.
Will we ever learn before its too late?

www.smithsonianmag.com...

www.icis.com... (video)


Thank you for your links as well.


Your ideas are pretty easy to implement into things we use daily. We just need more people to think about it mre often. I think we will see improvements in the next generation or two though.... Atleast I hope so.




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